Reflective summary
Language learning and teaching course is a necessary course for everyone interested in the field of teaching English as a second language. This course provided me with theories and explanations in how human acquired the first and second language and what factors can affect their ability to acquire the language. There are three theories that have been described first language acquisition. Behaviorist approach insists that language behavior is a production of correct response to a particular stimulus. Functional approach focused on the social interaction while the nativist theory insists that we are born with the inner ability to understand and developed language. All of these theories explained just one aspect and factor …show more content…
Learner’s first language can cause a barrier to learn a new language, however, study the structural analysis of the two languages (first and second language) could predict the difficult areas that could encounter by learners. This is what it is known as the strong version of “Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis” which is the dominate approach to second language acquisition. Analyzing learners’ errors contributes to understand the weak side of learners and work to improve it, but it is important to distinguish between errors and mistakes. Errors can not be self corrected and the learner has no idea about the rules, and they are a result of the learner’s lack of knowledge about the proper language. However, mistakes are those errors that are made by a mistake or “a random guess”, and the learner knows the rules, but he/she fails to apply them in reality. This is very normal and can be made even by native speakers, and they usually and in many situations correct themselves when they made mistakes. These errors can be classified according to a number of different classifications. The general identification could be addition, omission, substitution and ordering. It can be classified according to the levels of language: phonology, orthography, lexicon, grammar and discourse. Errors could be view as a global error in which it …show more content…
Communicative competence is the ability to use the language appropartely in different social settings and environments by using four skills: grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence. This kind of approach is very important to implement in teaching English as a second language. Teachers must be trained to develop their teaching methods and help students to understand and develop all the competences of the language and focus more on the communicative skills. Also, the way of assess students need to adjust from focusing just on grammar and writing to design some assessment on communication and examine how students can convey their messages to the
Language learning and teaching course is a necessary course for everyone interested in the field of teaching English as a second language. This course provided me with theories and explanations in how human acquired the first and second language and what factors can affect their ability to acquire the language. There are three theories that have been described first language acquisition. Behaviorist approach insists that language behavior is a production of correct response to a particular stimulus. Functional approach focused on the social interaction while the nativist theory insists that we are born with the inner ability to understand and developed language. All of these theories explained just one aspect and factor …show more content…
Learner’s first language can cause a barrier to learn a new language, however, study the structural analysis of the two languages (first and second language) could predict the difficult areas that could encounter by learners. This is what it is known as the strong version of “Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis” which is the dominate approach to second language acquisition. Analyzing learners’ errors contributes to understand the weak side of learners and work to improve it, but it is important to distinguish between errors and mistakes. Errors can not be self corrected and the learner has no idea about the rules, and they are a result of the learner’s lack of knowledge about the proper language. However, mistakes are those errors that are made by a mistake or “a random guess”, and the learner knows the rules, but he/she fails to apply them in reality. This is very normal and can be made even by native speakers, and they usually and in many situations correct themselves when they made mistakes. These errors can be classified according to a number of different classifications. The general identification could be addition, omission, substitution and ordering. It can be classified according to the levels of language: phonology, orthography, lexicon, grammar and discourse. Errors could be view as a global error in which it …show more content…
Communicative competence is the ability to use the language appropartely in different social settings and environments by using four skills: grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence. This kind of approach is very important to implement in teaching English as a second language. Teachers must be trained to develop their teaching methods and help students to understand and develop all the competences of the language and focus more on the communicative skills. Also, the way of assess students need to adjust from focusing just on grammar and writing to design some assessment on communication and examine how students can convey their messages to the